The Pittsburgh Penguins are going to need to adjust to life without Sidney Crosby. Evgeni Malkin is ready to help.

Crosby badly sprained an ankle while ramming into the boards in the first period, and the Andre Roy-led Tampa Bay Lightning took advantage of his absence for a 3-0 victory over the Penguins on Friday night.

"Right now, since we lost our leader and our captain, I'm going to try my best and raise my game," said Malkin, who is second on the team with 52 points. "I'm going to try to do a little more."

His teammates will have to as well. The Penguins, had won six in a row at home and were 9-0-1 in their previous 10, looked listless without Crosby and the spark was gone from the sellout crowd.

Malkin has 12 goals and three assists in his past 13 games. He'll need to keep that up until the Penguins' captain comes back if they want to remain near the top of the Atlantic Division.

The timetable for Crosby's return is unclear.

He was diagnosed with a high ankle sprain, an injury to the large ligament that connects the two biggest bones in the lower leg, the tibia and fibula. The injury is more serious than the traditional twisted ankle and can sideline an athlete for a month or more. Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has been out since Dec. 6 with the same injury.

"Obviously, it is a huge loss," said coach Michel Therrien, who doesn't know how long Crosby will be out. "There is no team that can deal with losing the best player in the league. He is the heart of the team and he is our leader. We are going to face adversity and we are going to have to battle through it."

Until now, Crosby has missed only four games to injury during his three-season NHL career. The Penguins' record without him is 0-2-2.

"To see a guy like that go down and not come back, it's tough," Penguins forward Colby Armstrong said. "Guys are going to have to take it upon themselves as a team to fill in. But I don't know if you can fill a spot like that."

That was the best effort I have seen from Malkin in his career here. You might look at the scoresheet and see only an empty net goal, but this was his finest hour. He was just dominant, creating a ****load of chances...even hustling on D....I think he knows with Sid down he needs to be a leader now. I was so proud of him watching this game. He ****ing raped. Great timing from Geno.

PITTSBURGH (AP) -Sidney Crosby was placed on injured reserve Monday, a move that allowed the Pittsburgh Penguins to add an extra forward for their final two games before the All-Star break.

Crosby injured his right ankle during the Penguins' 3-0 loss to Tampa Bay on Friday and is expected to be out at least a month and possibly longer.

Because there is swelling in his ankle, Crosby won't be re-examined by team doctors until Tuesday.

The preliminary diagnosis is a high ankle sprain, an injury that occurs in the ligaments that connect the tibia and fibula in the lower leg. Penguins goalie Marc-Andre Fleury has been out since Dec. 6 with the same injury and is not yet ready to return.

When Fleury was hurt, it was estimated he would return in six to eight weeks.

The injury will keep Crosby, the leading vote-getter in the All-Star balloting, out of Sunday's All-Star game in Atlanta.

The Penguins recalled forwards Chris Minard, Tim Brent and Jonathan Filewich from their Wilkes-Barre/Scranton (AHL) farm club. Forward Adam Hall (groin) also went on the injured list and defenseman Ryan Lannon was returned to Wilkes-Barre after not playing in any games during his two weeks with Pittsburgh.

Minard, signed by the Penguins in July, has played professionally since 2002 but has never been in the NHL. He led Wilkes-Barre with 17 goals. Brent, who played in 15 games with Anaheim last season, was Wilkes-Barre's leading scorer with 35 points, including seven goals.

Filewich, a third-round draft pick in 2003, had seven goals and 10 assists at Wilkes-Barre, a falloff from his 56-point season there a year ago.

OMG that was amazing....Malkin just blew Ovechkin up....AO was lining Geno up but once he made contact it was as if Ovechkin had flown into a brick wall. That was sweet, he just bounced off him and flipped over into the boards. Go Geno! He's raping again tonight, too with a goal in the first period. 2-2 game after 1 period.

Please put that on YOUTUBE, man that was sweet, and they started to get into it later, too.

EDIT:
WSH 6 PIT 5 (SO) First time Caps have beaten us in a long time. Congrats Herc. Very good hockey game.

OMG that was amazing....Malkin just blew Ovechkin up....AO was lining Geno up but once he made contact it was as if Ovechkin had flown into a brick wall. That was sweet, he just bounced off him and flipped over into the boards. Go Geno! He's raping again tonight, too with a goal in the first period. 2-2 game after 1 period.

Please put that on YOUTUBE, man that was sweet, and they started to get into it later, too.

EDIT:
WSH 6 PIT 5 (SO) First time Caps have beaten us in a long time. Congrats Herc. Very good hockey game.

ok now fair being fair, you guys will be playing wihtout george for a few games for that one. That was worse then jones on bergeron and he got 3 games so id say 5 for george.

BUT it was as much downies fault, im sorry but it is stupid to skate like tha tinto the boards, specially when you see him look over his back and see a guy right behind him.

That being said, i think downie was faking it on the ice, just to make sure he drew the penalty, see he aint as stupid as he may seem, weve got burned by that too many times, pretend your dead and it looks alot worse.

anybody else notice that the ref was about to skate away wihtout putting his arm up until he saw that downie wasnt getting up, That is what is wrong with hockey today. If downie gets up there isnt even a penalty called.

yes your right, its a curse to be competitive every year, you wouldnt know anything about that, i mean you dont get 5 top 3 picks in a row by being a good team, its all good tho, 2 years from now when you cant pay all your top 5 picks they leave and you will go back to sucking, nobody will go to the new arena, and the team will be bankrupt for the 4th time, and maybe then the league will fix its mistake and fold the team that nobody cares about.

The prognosis when Marc-Andre Fleury injured his right ankle Dec. 6 in Calgary -- that he wouldn't be able to play for six or eight weeks -- seemed rather bleak.

Turns out it was overly optimistic.

But while week nine of Fleury's absence begins today, so does a significant step in his return from a high ankle sprain: He is scheduled to participate in at least part of the Penguins' practice at Mellon Arena this morning, the first time he has been able to do so since being injured.

The decision to have him work out with his teammates was made after Fleury got through a fairly demanding session with goalie coach Gilles Meloche and several staff members before the Penguins' informal practice yesterday at Mellon Arena.

"It's not 100 percent," Fleury said. "But it's getting better."

Although there still is no target date for Fleury to be back in uniform -- even without a setback, his remaining absence likely will be measured in weeks -- forwards Colby Armstrong and Adam Hall skated yesterday and said they could return as early as tomorrow, when Carolina visits Mellon Arena.

Armstrong missed the past two games because of a gastrointestinal ailment, and Hall sat out the past four because of a sore groin. Neither is a lock to face the Hurricanes, but neither has ruled it out, and Armstrong said "it's looking pretty good" for him to play then.

Armstrong, who doesn't carry any extra weight, lost about 5 pounds while he was ill, mostly because he was unable to keep food down for several days.

He stayed on the ice with assistant coach Mike Yeo after practice, which consisted mostly of a casual four-on-four scrimmage, for extra work in an effort to prepare him for a conventional workout today.

"It was good to get a sweat when I was actually doing something," Armstrong said.

He added that, although his energy level is down, a blood test has confirmed that, unlike teammate Tyler Kennedy, he does not have mononucleosis.

"I was thankful for that," Armstrong said.

Armstrong was stricken during the All-Star break last weekend and did not begin to get over his illness until midweek.

"I had my first good day [Wednesday]," he said. "I'd been pretty much bedridden the [previous] few days."

Hall didn't have to deal with that but has had to proceed cautiously since a groin problem forced him out of the Penguins' 2-0 victory Jan. 19 in Montreal. The practice yesterday was the most strenuous test his injury has had to date.

"You just have to see how it feels and take it step by step," Hall said. "The good news is, I feel like it's strengthening, getting stronger, so I just have to keep building it up.

"It's a gradual thing. You don't want to overextend and reinjure it, and set yourself back. But, at the same time, you want to push it a little harder each day."

He added that "I'm getting closer and closer to game shape," but declined to saw how close to normal his conditioning is because "that's something you never know until you get back."

Fleury's conditioning isn't an issue just yet; a more pressing concern is how his ankle will hold up under the demands of the butterfly style he plays. Being able to push off hard to return to an upright position after dropping into the butterfly is imperative, and Fleury was able to do it yesterday with no major difficulty.

"[There was] no sharp pain," Meloche said. "Just normal pain from not practicing, and scar tissue and stuff like that.

"He was moving well. When he gets in a real practice, then we'll know about his timing and conditioning. I guess his stamina would be pretty good, because he's worked pretty hard [off the ice]."

Fleury, of course, has had plenty of time to do that. More than most people anticipated when he was injured nearly two months ago.

•

NOTES -- The Penguins acquired minor-league forward David Gove from the Carolina Hurricanes organization last night in exchange for minor-league center Joe Jensen. Gove will report to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton. ... Center Kris Beech, claimed on waivers from Washington last week, was supposed to skate yesterday after finally resolving his immigration issues, but did not have a physical in time to do so. He is expected to practice today, but it is not known if he will dress for the Carolina game.

Penguins Notebook: Orpik finds life as left winger to be different, weird
Thursday, January 31, 2008
By Shelly Anderson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

ATLANTA -- Sitting in the visiting locker room of Philips Arena some 12 hours after his first game at left wing ended, Brooks Orpik looked a bit dazed by the experience.

"Comfortable? I don't know about comfortable," said Orpik, who, because of a series of injuries and illnesses, was asked by Penguins coaches to switch from his lifelong position of defenseman for a 4-2 win Tuesday at New Jersey.

"It was weird. You're used to having the whole play in front of you. Your vision, your sight lines are so different."

He was back on the wing last night against the Thrashers.

"For whatever reason, I was the chosen one," said Orpik, who got a quick primer from assistant coach Mike Yeo before the game against the Devils and played 6:49 with one shot.

"They said, 'Here's the system. We're not expecting a perfect game out of you. We just want energy out of you.'"

Atlanta forward and former Penguin Chris Thorburn was surprised about the move.

"To see him on the left wing, it's a little shocking," Thorburn said. "He's a physical presence, and he's got speed and talent. He might be out of his element a little bit, but, as soon as he catches it, he'll be a force."

That's probably only if the Penguins continue to lose players.

"Everyone's helping the team out, doing whatever they can," defenseman Ryan Whitney said. "[Orpik] did a good job with that."
Recchi sizes up Kovalchuk

Atlanta winger Ilya Kovalchuk came out of the All-Star Game break as the NHL's No. 2 goal-scorer; he had 37, two fewer than Alex Ovechkin of Washington.

He also has made a strong impression on ex-Penguin Mark Recchi, who plays on the Thrashers' top line with Kovalchuk and is proving to be an effective set-up man for him.

"I definitely see him differently now that I see him every day," Recchi said. "He's pretty scary. The one thing that really surprised me is how big he is. He's 220, 225 pounds. He's a big kid. He's got a big rear end and legs. He's a big horse.

"He's a little like Sidney [Crosby]. They have that same passion, that same drive. They really want to be the best. He wants to learn and he wants to get better."
Mediocrity rules

"We just happen to be in a division this year that may be a little weaker than the other divisions," said Atlanta coach and general manager Don Waddell.

"I keep reminding people, though, that two of the past three Stanley Cup champions have come out of our division.

"This year nobody's jumped out from the five teams to take charge of the division, and that's why there's an opportunity for all five teams to win the division."

Going into last night, the Southeast teams accounted for five of the nine lowest point totals in the Eastern Conference. Only the division winner is guaranteed a spot in the playoffs.

"We know we have less points than other divisions, but the division is really tight, and anybody could win," Hossa said.
Camera shy

Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin had an explanation for ducking reporters after he had two assists Sunday in his first All-Star Game here.

"Cameras," Malkin said in English.

Anxiety over interviews not in his native Russian aside, he enjoyed the weekend.

"It was very fun," he said. "Good show."
Slap shots

Because of high winds, the Penguins had a rough flight Tuesday night from New Jersey to Atlanta. "That was one of the worst I've [been on]. It was bumpy for two hours," goaltender Dany Sabourin said. ... The Penguins had a team meeting instead of a morning skate. ... Penguins scratches were forwards Colby Armstrong (illness) and Kris Beech (visa snag).
First published on January 31, 2008 at 12:00 am